Category Archives: Uncategorized

Simon Burgun

Eleven-year Guild member Simon Burgun makes and restores guitars. He’s the Best Maker in France. No kidding. He has a gold medal to prove it, presented to him by the President of the Republic.

▪ bio current as of 2025

Rob Goldberg

Two-year GAL member Rob Goldberg is one of those Lutherie-Boom guys. As a teenager in the 1960s, he fell in love with the first handmade guitar he ever saw, and made a couple guitars on his own without much help. In 1974 he became Bill Cumpiano’s very first apprentice. After a successful run as a guitar maker in the Northeast, he took a break from lutherie of almost thirty years when he moved to Alaska, started a family, and had a career in fine arts. But the lutherie bug bit again, and he’s been back at it for more than a quarter century.

▪ bio current as of 2025

Questions: Nut Mounting

2016
AL#126 p.70               
Tim Shaw                                                                                           

▪ Should the bottom surface of the nut on a steel string guitar be parallel with the bottom of the fretboard, or with the peghead?

Questions: Chocolaty Tone

2015
AL#122 p.70               
Daniele Dubois   Claudia Fritz                                                                                       

▪ Arguing in favor of defining a tone as ‘chocolaty’ based on multidisciplinary research expertise combining acoustics, psychology, and linguistics.

Lutherie Curmudgeon

2014
AL#117 p.65               
John Calkin                                                                                           

▪ Calkin ponders the phenomenon of how-to-book authors leaving out their most vital information. This may be due to the assumption of the knowledge of basic information often taken for granted.

Hunting the Elusive Guitar Wolf

2013
AL#114 p.42               read this article
Alan Carruth                                                                                           

▪ Carruth examines the guitar wolf, (a ‘bad’ note linked to some feature of the resonant structure of the instrument or strings) where it lurks, and how to deal with it in an organized fashion.

Letter to the Editor: Advice on Damaged Instruments

2013
AL#115 p.3               
Steven Pine                                                                                           

▪ Advice regarding water damaged instruments and steps to handle, stabilize, dry, reduce warping, dealing with varnish, and maintaining historical evidence.

A Summary of John Greven’s Voicing Method

2013
AL#114 p.10               read this article
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Greven’s simple and direct methods for controlling the sound of his guitars are intuitive and experimental despite his roots in the scientific field.

Letter to the Editor: endangered species act

2011
AL#106 p.4               
Chuck Erikson                                                                                           

▪ Fish and Wildlife pays an unexpected visit to the Duke of Pearl, causing him to learn more than he ever wanted to know about the Lacey Act.

Anodizing Aluminum

2010
AL#103 p.15               
Mike Doolin                                                                                           

▪ Anodizing aluminum using battery acid, a plastic tank, and aluminum rod, and an automotive battery charger.

Letter to the Editor: Statistical Listening Test

2009
AL#98 p.3               read this article
Kenny Hill                                                                                           

▪ Hill’s letter is a response to R. M. Mottola’s article in AL #96 about sound ports, which found that they were ineffective in changing the volume or tone of a guitar to the player or listener. Hill maintains that the science and his personal experience are at odds, and that he is willing to stand by his personal experience. Well, we love a good argument, especially when both sides make their case so eloquently. To be continued. . . .

Questions: Guitar Making Graduated Projects

1998
AL#53 p.59               
John Calkin   Harry Fleishman                                                                                       

▪ A standard series of graduated projects that one can undertake to gain experience in instrument maker.

It Worked for Me: Strap Button

1997
AL#51 p.53               
Michael Darnton                                                                                           

▪ Contrary to Darrelle Anne Le Maitre’s comments in AL#50, using a cushy washer under a strap button will actually increase the load and leverage on a screw and increase the chance of repeat failure.

Further Reading in American Lutherie

1997
   LW p.142            
Staff                                                                                           

▪ The material in Lutherie Woods is mostly pre-American Lutherie. This list of related articles will help bring you up to date.